At distance

Most of us also know why: “The Coronavirus” (also known as SARS-Cov-2)
spreads through close contact between people – mostly by small droplets that
you cough up or exhale.

That’s why measures everywhere are all designed to keep us at a safe
distance from each other.

So some things are the same everywhere: To prevent gatherings, you have to
shut down place where people mingle – like schools, bars and restaurants.

But even with the same goal in mind, the approach varies quite a bit.

France

France, in good centralistic style, enacted a complete confinement: You have
to stay home, you cannot travel anywhere. Visits to friends, relatives or
neighbours are forbidden. All parks and public places are closed.

The lockdown was swift and complete, even though some Parisians used the last
few hours of “freedom” to escape to their holiday homes in the countryside.

All rules of the confinement are described in detail - the
government FAQ seems about 100
items long.

And when president
Macron declared war on the virus, he didn’t forget to mention that he also
deployed 100.000 police to enforce the quarantine rules. Since then they have
handed out hundreds of citations each day.

Italy

The main difference is that Italy found it neccessary to also close down
non-essential industries.

Examples rules

No visits to anyone

You can do sports outside for at most 1 hour per day and at most 1km from your
home

You must not drive your car without an “important reason”

Cycling is not allowed for pleasure, only for shopping and work, but a child
may cycle if the accompanying adult is not

Germany

Germany initally seemed envious of the “swift” French approach. The federal
government has few powers even during health emergencies, and people where
getting anxious when it took the federal states a few days to figure
everything out.

But things worked out quite well. There are general guidelines and the
states adjust the measures to suit their current situation. Some
regions set up travel restrictions, but in general Germans are trusted to do the
right thing.

Germany’s answer to the confinement is the Kontaktverbot (contact
prohibition): You can still go out for shopping or to talke a walk, without
any papewerwork – with one exception: You must not meet with more than one
other person in public and keep your distance to everyone else.

You can still go to parks, cycle around or have a walk in the forest. Berlin
even reinstated the right to sit down parks, as long as you do it with members of
your household and there are 5 meters between each group.

Restaurants, shops and public institutions are closed there as well; and there’s
also police enforcement and fines, but relatively few citations
were handed out in most Germany cities.

In the other hand, Germans are still known to file noise complaints if the
neighbors start singing on their balconies.

The differences

Germany

France

Going outside

Okay for neccessities, but stay away from people.

Only for “important” things. Paperwork required.

Hashtag

#WirBleibenZuhause (we stay at home)

#RestesChezVous (Stay home!)

Travel

Restricted in some regions. Okay in others.

Nobody goes anywhere.

Paperwork

None.

Fill a self-certification each time you go out.

Take a walk

Yes.

Yes, with certifcation within 1km of home. Max. 1h

Jogging

Yes.

Not between 10-19:00 (in Paris)

Music on the balcony

Yes, but neighbors may call the police.

Yes.

Dificult to get…

Toilet paper, flour, desinfectant, masks, yeast

For us: Limited crisp&wine selection on Saturdays. Masks also sold out.

Minimum distance

1,5 meters

1 meter

Does it work?

The word isn’t out yet if one approach works better than the other. Germany
was lucky in that the pandemic arrived relatively late and thanks to extensive
testing the country had somewhat of a head start. France was quickly moving
in the same direction as Italy, with ICUs in the East starting already getting
overrun in mid-March, and the country saw that it needed to do something.

That said, the German approach will possibly cause a bit less collateral damage,
as people aren’t completely locked up and have more flexibility to deal with
life.

The measures are showing effects in both countries, though nobody knows what the
easter holidays will bring.

In the future

If the current measures are to be relaxed (and they have to be), we do need
smarter approaches to prevent a rebound of cases until a vaccine is available.

We’ll still have to see how the countries deal with privacy and personal
freedoms on topics like tracing apps and masks. In Germany a group is
already working on a privacy-aware contact-tracing
app, but France may be more likely to introduce such a thing by public order.

We like your feedback

We want to cover more perspectives from all around the world.
Give us your insight and opion
on how things look like where you live and how you think this crisis is handled.

We’ll publish the answers here, if we get any.

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